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Rocket Boys

The Coalwood Series, Book 1

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Tom Stechschulte

Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
507

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
460

Story

5 out of 5 stars
465

The
New York Times best-selling memoir that inspired the film
October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir - a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space... and who made those dreams come true. Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a marvelously entertaining chronicle of triumph.

Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando, where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie's dreams of a life with him were crushed, and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer.

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Crater

A Helium-3 Novel

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Adam Verner

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
32

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
27

Story

4 out of 5 stars
27

A mining colony on the moon. A teen sent on a deadly mission. And a secret bigger than two worlds. It’s the 22nd Century. A tough, pioneering people mine the moon for Helium-3 to produce energy for a desperate, war-torn Earth. Sixteen-year old Crater Trueblood loves his job as a Helium-3 miner. But when he saves a fellow miner, his life changes forever. Impressed by his heroism, the owner of the mine orders Crater to undertake a dangerous mission.

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From Rocket Boys to October Sky

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Joe Barrett

Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
50

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
48

Story

4 out of 5 stars
47

Since the publication of the #1 bestseller
Rocket Boys: A Memoir in 1998 and the premiere of the movie
October Sky in 1999, many Homer Hickam listeners and fans have wondered how and why he wrote the book, and how the movie was made. Incidental to that are such questions as "What is Jake Gyllenhaal, Chis Cooper, Laura Dern, etc. really like?" and "What's it like to have a movie made about your life?" and "Why are the book and movie different?" and "Why are both book and movie still so popular after all these years?" The answers to those questions and a lot more are in Homer Hickam's new audiobook
From Rocket Boys to October Sky.

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Sky of Stone

A Memoir

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Dick Hill

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
42

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
32

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
32

In the summer of '61, Homer "Sonny" Hickam, a year of college behind him, is dreaming of sandy beaches and rocket ships. But before Sonny can reach the seaside fixer-upper where his mother is spending the summer, a telephone call sends him back to the place he thought he had escaped, the gritty coal-mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. There, Sonny's father, the mine's superintendent, has been accused of negligence in a man's death.

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Rocket Boys

By:
Homer H. Hickam Jr.

Narrated by:
Beau Bridges

Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins

Abridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
132

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
51

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
53

In this uniquely American memoir, Homer "Sonny" Hickam beautifully captures a moment when a dying town, a divided family, and a band of teenage dreamers dared to set their sights on the stars. Looking back after a distinguished NASA career that fulfilled his boyhood ambition, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking listeners into the life of the little mining town and the boys who came to embody both its tensions and its dreams.

Homer and his close buddies, who call themselves the Rocket Boys, are high school seniors in 1959. Their rocket building experiments amaze the locals, thanks to top-quality moonshine for fuel, “liberated” materials, and Homer’s self-taught understanding of higher math. But no matter how brilliant their experiments are, they can do little to help preserve Coalwood’s way of life.

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The Keeper's Son

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Michael Kramer

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
78

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
24

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
25

On the outer banks of the Carolinas in 1941, fishermen and a few lonely sailors constitute the human population. Dominating the rough yet beautiful landscape is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, run for generations by the Thurlow family. But Josh Thurlow, the lighthouse keeper's son, has forsworn his heritage to become the commander of a small Coast Guard patrol boat. Tortured by twenty years of guilt for losing his brother at sea, Josh still searches for him.

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The Far Reaches

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Mark Deakins

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
37

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
12

Story

4 out of 5 stars
12

The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific.

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Paco: The Cat Who Meowed in Space

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Joe Barrett

Length: 2 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
25

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
24

Story

4 out of 5 stars
25

Homer Hickam recalls his first years as a NASA engineer, while also telling the story of his fluffy black and white cat Paco, who had the magic ability to make people smile and give them hope. But when Paco was struck down by a disease that left him unable to walk, Hickam was faced with a terrible decision, let his beloved cat live in misery or put him to sleep. Before that decision could be made, the space mission Hickam was working on needed to be rescued and there was only one sure way to save it: Paco's magic meow!

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The Ambassador's Son

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Stephen Hoye

Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
59

Performance

3.5 out of 5 stars
23

Story

3.5 out of 5 stars
22

It's 1943 and the Americans and Japanese are fighting a deadly war in the hot, jungle-covered volcanic islands of the South Pacific. The outcome is in doubt and a terrible blow has fallen on American morale. Lieutenant David Armistead, a Marine Corps hero and cousin of the President of the United States, is missing and some say he's gone over to the enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow and his ragtag crew are given the assignment to find Armistead, though not necessarily to bring him back alive.

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Crater Trueblood and the Lunar Rescue Company

A Helium-3 Novel, Book 3

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Adam Verner

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
11

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
9

Story

4 out of 5 stars
9

Crater Trueblood has to rescue his ex-girlfriend... and the entire human race. Maria Medaris - gorgeous, powerful, and high-maintenance - is the 21-year-old matriarch of the most powerful family on the moon. When she is kidnapped by green-lipped, gene-splicing scientists, Maria's only hope turns out to be the very man she once spurned: Crater Trueblood. Crater and the Lunar Rescue Company must rescue Maria before she joins forces with the lunatics who have taken her hostage and aim to make her queen.

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Crescent

A Helium-3 Novel, Book 2

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Adam Verner

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
13

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
9

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
10

Crescent is a crowhopper - a genetically modified mercenary programmed for ruthless warfare. When she’s taken prisoner by Crater Trueblood instead of being killed in battle, she thinks it’s a disaster. Crater is weary of war. He’s a miner, not a soldier. He’d rather be mining Helium-3 than battling the infernal crowhoppers. But after he captures Crescent and brings her to Moontown, he’s surprised how much he enjoys her company. When she’s falsely accused of murder, he becomes an outlaw to help her escape.

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The Dinosaur Hunter

A Novel

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Michael Kramer

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
54

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
32

Story

4 out of 5 stars
33

Life on the ranchlands of Montana comes with more than its share of trouble. The unique people who live and work on this untamed stretch of today's American West expect it---and some of them even enjoy it. One of them is Mike Wire, a former homicide detective who once worked the decadent hills and valleys of Hollywood.

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Red Helmet

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Kirsten Potter

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
16

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
6

Story

4 out of 5 stars
6

In this hauntingly beautiful and romantic novel, he brings alive the little Appalachian town of Highcoal and a people dedicated to mining coal according to the old ways while struggling with modern problems - illegal drugs, environmental destruction, and a world economy that threatens their very existence. Song Hawkins is a beautiful, tough, but lonely New York City businesswoman who thinks she's met the man of her dreams in Cable Jordan, the superintendent of a West Virginia coal mine.

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The Otherworldly Spirit of John Glenn

By:
Homer Hickam

Narrated by:
Jenny Hoops

Length: 4 mins

Unabridged

Overall

0 out of 5 stars
0

Performance

0 out of 5 stars
0

Story

0 out of 5 stars
0

We’ve lost the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts, the prodigious test pilots chosen to be the first Americans to fly into space. In the 1960s, nearly every American youth could list them: Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper and Slayton.